[Bensma]

My 5.5 mo DS is an amazing nighttime sleeper, but really not a good napper. It was fine when he was also happy, but now he gets crankier as the day goes on. He keeps trying to nap but can't get past 30 minutes. He wakes up crying.

I've tried putting him in dark room to nap, and lying down with him, whyich actually seemed to make the situation worse.

Any adsvice or suggestions are more than welcome,

 

[Felicitymom]

Hmmm... I know my baby sometimes gets cranky at the end of the day, particularly if she hasn't napped well. When this happens I lay down with her... and that usually works. Can you try this again since it didn't work for you before?

Another thing I do is just try something completely different... like walking baby (in a stroller or around the house) or driving around or bouncing until they fall asleep, let them sleep for their 30 minutes wherever they fall asleep and then when they wake up, gently bring them to their 'normal nap' place and nurse them back down. Or you could do it visa versa. Let them nap for thier 30 minutes and if they wake up and seem tired go for a drive.

good luck
Nancy

 

[AugustineM]

My DS often wakes up after 30 minutes into a nap but I know he's still tired, so I lie down with him and nurse him back to sleep. Usually he'll go for at least an hour after that. BUT I did have to co-nap with him (while nursing) for his first 6 months at least. He's better about sleeping without me (after I sneak away) for over an hour now. I used to sometimes rock him for an hour when he was younger. He'd always sleep that way.

 

[starlein26]

ds did this too when he was a baby. it took roughly a year of my 'help' to achieve a 'non-stop sleeping' nap, he even started sleeping through the night around 21 months (that was totally on his own though

). i would wait outside the door around the critical period of 20-30 minutes and as soon as i heard him stir i would rub his back sideways or upward (gently rocking his body.) i would have to do this until he was sound asleep again, sometimes 10-15 minutes but then he would sleep another hour and to get another hour out of him i would repeat that sequence. it took many months of for him to acheive this on his own...but he is a wonderful sleeper now.
i guess i always placed a great emphasis on proper sleep because i know neuronal pathways are being formed during sleep and i wanted to make sure he was well rested.

 

[PortraitPixie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by starlein26 i would wait outside the door around the critical period of 20-30 minutes and as soon as i heard him stir i would rub his back sideways or upward (gently rocking his body.) i would have to do this until he was sound asleep again, sometimes 10-15 minutes

This helped us too . . .and if the patting, rubbing, stroking hair didn't work I would nurse him a little more and he would go back to sleep fairly quickly.

Sarah

 

[Bensma]

Thanks, Starlein26. I will try getting in there faster. Often, by the time I hear him, he's WIDE awake. Even though, he's still tired and crying about the short nap, there's no getting him back to sleep at that point. He fooled me for a few days, by taking a 2-3 hour nap each afternoon on his own, so I thought we had "passed this phase". But now we're back to the 30 minute naps. I actually like to call them non-naps, because he wakes up crankier than when he went to sleep!

 

[mandalamama]

do you wear him? Willow was the same way about naps, sometimes still is, and i notice her longest naps are sometimes in the sling. when she was 5-6 months, i also still swaddled her, loosely, she had needed it since birth and it really worked for her. even now at 8 months, if she's tired yet resisting a nap, i just have to tuck a blankie around her arms to give her the feeling of being swaddled and she'll start yawning and nod off. i think that's why she naps while i'm wearing her, it makes her feel swaddled?